Happy to be...DTE!!!!

We're so HAPPY TO BE...DTE!!! DTE stands for Dossier to Ethiopia. Our dossier is the term used for all the paperwork we were in charge of obtaining and getting filled out and getting notarized and put together in the correct order and...well, you get the idea! So we are officially on the waiting list! 3/18/2010 will be the date that starts our referral wait and puts us in line to be matched with our child! I've been waiting for this day for 8 long months now and it's finally arrived. Now the day we receive our referral will be much better and the day we meet our child even better than that and the day we BRING OUR CHILD HOME FOREVER the best yet! But this is a grand day in the journey of international adoption! I've included a picture below of our dossier before we mailed it off. It now has to get to Ethiopia and be translated and then I guess it sits in line with all the others but it's out of our hands now and that feels great! YAHOOOO!!

Also, our t-shirts came in the mail last night! So to celebrate we'll be selling the t-shirts starting on our blog. Currently we have adult small, medium, and large. We also have youth XS (2-4) and youth S (6-7) sizes. You can buy the shirts using the secure paypal button on the top right of our blog. Or you can mail us a check. Either way please e-mail us at autcr@yahoo.com to let us know your mailing address and size(s). My cousin, Hannah Svebakken, created the design for us as a contribution to our adoption journey and we love it! Thank you Hannah! We have a very limited number of shirts to begin with so if you're interested in making a donation to our adoption this will be our only fundraiser. We appreciate any and every donation that people feel led to give. I will admit that the funding has been the difficult part of this. I knew when we began that God was telling us to trust in Him and He would take care of ALL the rest. Well, I've learned that I am awful at leaning on other people around me. The thought of asking for money is a hard pill to swallow for most of us. However, I believe in God's word and in it Jesus tells us many times over to care for the poor and the orphan and widow. As God has blessed us with the resources to donate towards other couples' adoption costs I know He will lead those that will help us with the costs involved in bringing our child home. I will also be updating the blog often with specific prayer requests and hope that you will come alongside us in covering those requests in prayer.

I will end with some pictures of our t-shirts and some recent pictures of Go Texan Day here in Houston and our recent Rodeo outing! Happy Spring everybody!

OUR COMPLETED DOSSIER!!!

Youth shirt on Oliver

Adult shirts...light grey map of Africa on side

Back of shirt...John 14:18 "For I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you"

Front of shirt...text says Closer to love

Detail of back of shirt with verse John 14:18

Chambers' Cowboys

Wyatt

Cowboy O

Wyatt loves to pet animals

Their ONE carnival ride!